Kelley Armstrong
Young writers need to be encouraged to write - just write - with no restrictions on form, style or content.
I grew up writing about the paranormal, and I blame too many Saturday mornings watching 'Scooby Doo.'
Especially in the world of fantasy and superheroes, it's great to have role models that aren't in skimpy little outfits, in impossible poses. That's so important for young women.
I don't read much of what I write because I worry about unintentionally borrowing something.
Storytelling is my passion, and it rises from a love of reading.
It wasn't until I was in my teens that I started admiring writers as inspirations for my own work, and my earliest influences there were Stephen King, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Richard Adams.
The first piece of 'long' fiction I wrote was a novella parody of Stephen King's 'Christine.' I was in high school, and my version was about a kid with a possessed locker instead of a possessed car. It was also my first attempt at humour, which fell completely flat because no one who read it realized it was a parody!
It took many years to accept that fantasy is the fuel for my storytelling passion, and without that, I really am a hack, writing for money or approval rather than for the pure delight of storytelling.
When a series is doing well, it's very tempting to keep writing it, even when the creative well is drying up. It's tempting because that's where the money is. I've had to be very careful; as soon as I think I'm getting close to that dry well, I wrap the series up. I don't want to just keep writing something because it sells.
Everyone is the sum total of past experiences. A character doesn't just spring to life at age thirty.
I always worried that the creative well would dry up. I was sure that if I wrote a book a year, I would eventually run out of ideas. Actually, the opposite has been true for me. The more I write, the more ideas come to me and it gets easier.
Even in horror novels where you know most characters aren't going to make it to the end, it's crucial to have fully fleshed-out characters. If you don't do that, the reader doesn't care what happens to them.
There is no story that can't be improved by adding zombies.
Reviews are great. I can read negative reviews and say, 'You know that point they made... they were dead on.'
when times are tough, the weak bail and the tough get creative.Collection: Creative
Wow. The guy can make me feel stupid even when he's telling me I don't have to let him make me feel stupid.Collection: Stupid
I want you to have big dreams, big goals. I want you to strive to achieve them. But I don't want to see you beating yourself up every time you make a mistake.Collection: Dream
Kids who don't eavesdrop on adult conversations are doomed to a childhood of ignorance.Collection: Ignorance
No. Harsh truth was better than comfortable lies. It had to be.Collection: Lying
If you say ‘we’re in this together,’ I’m going to hurl.Collection: Together
That's what we all want, isn't it? Power without price.Collection: Power
Remembering. Forgetting. I'm not sure which is worse.Collection: Friendship
That's what being crazy was, wasn't it? You thought you were fine. Everyone else knew better.Collection: Crazy
He was trying to tell me something.' Derek snorted. 'Aren’t they all? Must be a rule in the ghost handbook—if in danger of evaporating, make sure you’re in the middle of a dire pronouncement.Collection: Trying
My past was a private obstacle, not a public excuse.Collection: Past
A name is so important. A surname connects you to your past, to your family. Even a given name has meaning - why did your parents pick that particular one?Collection: Past
Dearly departed, scarcely lamented, deeply demented.Collection: Departed
Maybe my expectations for honesty are too high.Collection: Honesty
Life experience. I can talk it up, vow to broaden my horizons, but I’m still limited to the experiences with my life. How can a person understand an experience that lies completely outside her own? She can see it, feel it, imagine what it would be like to live it, but it’s no different from seeing a movie on a screen and saying, “Thank God that’s not me”.Collection: Lying
I had to take responsibility, even if it meant saying no to an authority figure, because I was the authority on me.Collection: Responsibility
It's because when we sneeze, our soul flies out our nose and if no one says 'bless you,' the devil can snatch it.Collection: Soul
I've spent the last decade learning to stand firm and face my problems… or at least batter them until they're unrecognizable.Collection: Lasts
So consider your options, make your choice and call me home.Collection: Home
You know children, always playing with the forces of darkness.Collection: Children
When you accept a leadership role, you take on extra responsibility for your actions toward others.Collection: Leadership
One of the first lessons a necromancer learns is the art of playing dumb. Of course, one problem with playing dumb is that is seeps into your everyday life. ~Jaime VegasCollection: Art
Never go easy on allies if you ahve to take them down. Especially allies. You’re already fighting the urge not to hurt them. Counteract that and hit them with everything you’ve got.Collection: Hurt
Believe me, I have better things to do than sabotage your friendships. No one else's world revolves around you, Cassandra." -Paige to CassandraCollection: Believe
Yes," I said "You were saved by a girl. Horrible, isn't it?" He slid out and looked down at my bare legs. "Not just a girl, but a half-naked one. Now that's hot. If I'm still unconscious, don't wake me, okay?Collection: Girl
Cleavage is great," she said. "Like an extra pocket.Collection: Pockets
I'm just saying it's not time for that either. We need to focus and having Maya moon over Rafe is making everyone uncomfortable." Rafe grinned. "Doesn't bother me.Collection: Moon
Simon had drawn three pictures. In the top left corner, like a salutation, was a ghost. The middle had a big sketch of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator. The third in place of a signature, was a lightning bolt surrounded by fog. Beside the drawing, someone had scrawled in inch-high letters 10 A.M. Tori snatched it from me and turned it over. "So where's the message?" "Right there." I pointed from picture to picture. "It says: Chloe, I'll be back, Simon.Collection: Fog
It's a road," Corey said, pointing. "A dirt road," Hayley muttered. "So? We've been slogging through the forest for two days. What do you want? A six-lane highway?Collection: Two
He lifted his brows. "If I really thought it was the absolute best thing for our kids, you'd have had a battle on your hands. That was just a debate." "With chair-throwing." "Heated debate. Fights involve chair-breaking. Chair-throwing is just getting your attention.Collection: Kids
I'd always thought of myself as an open-minded person. I had no patience with anyone who put down other kids because of their race, religion, or sexuality. But that's just one kind of open-mindedness. There's another kind, too, the kind that's willing to see people for who they really are and admit when you were wrong about them. That's the part I still need to work on.Collection: Kids
You forget, darling, I am the local psychopath." ~Clayton Danvers, BittenCollection: Forget
To distract myself from thoughts of my father, i decided to check out the dead body.Collection: Father
He obviously needed more practice, but no matter how often I abandoned him out there, his sense of direction never seemed to improve.Collection: Practice
His gaze travelled down me, then zipped back to my face. "Sorry." "Focus, Rafe." "I am. Just on the wrong thing.Collection: Sorry
Derek? Derek!-Chole Chole! what are you doing out here? i said we will check it out later. key word WE-Derek oh, yeah I decided to come out on my own. thats why i was calling your name repeatively- CholeCollection: Keys